Moonlighting: Second Circulation
Concealed in the cold concrete walls within the lower level of the State Savings Bank in George Street, Brisbane, a disused vault played temporary host to a compelling installation of objects, surfaces, and sounds. Moonlighting: Second Circulation, by artist, Ruth McConchie, is one of the latest in a series of her object-based artworks shown in the Brisbane region—though the first to find its home in such a unique, and secluded space, hidden from the commotion amidst the Public Service area of Brisbane.
Within its conceptual formation, and in its title, the installation references a significant event in Queensland’s past. On the 11 May, 1987, after several articles in The Courier-Mail, Australia’s longest running investigative journalism program, ‘Four Corners’ aired an edition titled ‘The Moonlight State’, delving into the high-level corruption of the Queensland police. Leading to the Fitzgerald Inquiry that culminated in over one-hundred convictions, the jailing of the Police commissioner, and the end of the eighteen year reign of Queensland Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, ‘The Moonlight State’ exposed the debauchery seething just below the surface, at all levels of the Queensland police system. It upturned sordid events through its graphic depiction of the strip clubs, the brothels, and the underhand dealings between police and organised crime syndicates. As exemplified by this notorious historical event, the ability to use fronts, or guises of respectability to cloak elicit activities or persons is a concern that has reverberated throughout McConchie’s oeuvre, and constitutes part of the title of this installation.
An extension of the artist’s exhibition at the artist run organisation, Boxcopy, titled Standard Oil Company: He has prickles on his face (2012), Moonlighting: Second Circulation incorporates a space